Trouble breaks out; a fearful crisis ensues; things turn nasty • Often part of a time clause beginning with when or then: The shit is going to hit the fan, buddy/ The shit didn't hit the fan till this guy, Eddie Jaffe, takes the pad
[1930s+; fr the classical joke about the man who, finding no toilet, defecated into a hole in the floor; back downstairs, finding the barroom emptied of its celebrants, he inquired why, and was asked, ''Where were you when the shit hit the fan?'']